Harvesting the Potato Crop. 187 



constantly on the road drawing twelve miles to market. If I 

 dug with them it would hinder this work. Not long ago some 

 large grower, writing in papers, said he found it about as well to 

 have his crop dug by hand, and keep his teams at work, as to use 

 a digger. I could easily see how this might be wise, as I have 

 been in just about the same situation. But now machinery has 

 come around, good diggers are not as plenty. They seem to have 

 gone where the cradlers did soon after the binders came around 

 to seek a softer job. Also, we do not sell until after the wheat is 

 in now. There is little or no demand right from the field in 

 August and September, such as we used to have. Now, if I hired 

 men to dig, they would be of a class likely that would not dig 

 more than half as much as a real old-fashioned expert, and, while 

 they were doing it, my horses would be standing in the barn doing 

 nothing. Under these circumstances, a digger may be a great 

 advantage. The first digger I tried was of the cheap, plow digger 

 type. We carefully tried it side by side with hand digging, and 

 found we could not afford to use it at all. It did not take all the 

 potatoes out clean. Many were left covered or partly so. It was 

 a job to pick up after it. Then we were told we could harrow 

 the ground over, and pick up the rest. Then I guess you might 

 cultivate it and pick up some more, and then harrow it and find 

 another crop, and' then you would plow up some the next spring 

 get them all but too much strung out for a man who had been in 

 the habit of taking them out all clean as he went at one time. 

 It is but fair to say, however, that with high hills these cheap 

 diggers would work better than with our nearly level culture. 

 The next higher grade of diggers did some better. The Planet Jr. 

 digger is a passably good, cheap one. I have a Hallock here to try, 

 and should judge it a good tool of its class, but haven't used it 

 yet. I doubt whether any one grower has ever tried as many 

 diggers as the writer. It has been a real task. The first high- 

 priced digger was the Aspinwall. Price, $125. The manu- 

 facturer at that time (Mr. Gill), came here in person, and worked 

 hard all day. At last he owned that that was the best he could 

 do, pointing to last rows dug. We dug them over by hand, and 

 found enough left in the ground to pay for hand digging, and we 

 could pick up much faster after the fork. So I took the digger 

 back to depot. Years afterwards, Mr. Aspinwall came here with 

 an improved digger that did better. The draft was light, and its 

 only fault was not leaving all tubers out clean on top. Whether 

 they have been able to do this yet or not, I do not know. The 

 Triumph digger from New York State stands about like the 

 Aspinwall not quite perfect, but would do fine work under certain 

 conditions. Some eight years ago I tried the first elevator digger, 

 called the McCallum. It was poorly made, but I soon discovered 

 that the principle was correct, and that when it did go it was the 

 nearest perfect, for our mode of culture of any digger yet seen. 



